


Project M.A.D.I.E

by RegalPotato



Category: Galavant (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Robots & Androids, F/M, Robot/Human Relationships
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-02-09
Updated: 2017-02-09
Packaged: 2018-09-23 01:03:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,208
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9633125
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RegalPotato/pseuds/RegalPotato
Summary: Gareth Jones is the head of security for Dew, the most corrupt criminal organisation in all of Valencia. When his boss, Richard Kingsman, assigns him to oversee a project in the science division, he thinks his life is about to get that much more boring. That is, until he meets Maddie, the secret Dew project that will catapult their notoriety world wide. She's an android - artificial intelligence - and she just so happens to be the most beautiful thing Gareth's ever seen.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I hate Alternate Universe fanfic. I don't even know how to write Alternate Universe fanfic. YET HERE WE ARE.
> 
> This idea comes entirely from Mallory Jansen's amazing portrayal as the android Aida on Marvel's Agents of SHIELD.

Gareth Jones woke to the usual screaming of his alarm clock. He groaned, rolling over and slamming his hand down on the ‘off’ button. Wincing as he opened his eyes, he groaned a second time as the blurry red lines of ‘05:00’ glared at him. Slowly, Gareth sat up, dragging a hand down his face before trying to rub the sleep from his eyes. It was a Monday. He _hated_ Mondays.

He rolled out of bed and padded into his bathroom, turning on the tap and swearing as the water splashed out of the sink. Some days - mainly Mondays - he wondered if it was all worth it. He loved his job, but the long hours and quite frankly appalling pay - especially considering his high position in the company - often made him consider going straight. Gareth yawned, reaching up to grab his toothbrush from the cup above the sink.

The main reason for his continued loyalty was probably entirely due to his brother. Richard Kingsman, as his name suggested, was the kingpin of Dew; often referred to as ‘the company’, Dew was the most hated and feared crime syndicate in all of Valencia. Unknown to most, Richard was surprisingly inept at being the leader of a morally corrupt band of thieves, mercenaries, and assassins, and it often fell to Gareth to deal with the more gruesome aspects that came with employing cutthroat murderers. Whilst not related by blood, Gareth had spent his entire life so far looking out for Richard, and as he spat the foamy remnants of toothpaste into the sink, he realised that it probably wasn’t going to change anytime soon.

He was, of course, horribly wrong.

As soon as he left his apartment in the barracks, intending on making his way down to the weapons lockup, the radio in his ear beeped and a voice came filtering through. New orders. He sighed and turned around to head towards the administration department of the company headquarters.

Gareth strolled easily past the security, nodding in response to any greetings thrown towards him, and made his way into Richard’s office. He was fully expecting to be sent out on a mission or ordered to train some of the new recruits, but apparently his brother had different plans in mind.

“What do you mean I’m being reassigned?” Gareth yelled in outrage.

“I need you to oversee Wormwood’s new project. It could make all our lives a lot easier. It’s very important that this doesn’t go wrong.”

“Richard…” Gareth growled. “I’m head of security. Not a bloody babysitter.”

“Mr Jones, I have given you an order. And I expect it to be carried out.”

Richard stood up from behind his desk, anger emanating from his face. Gareth backed down. As close as he was to the man, Kingsman was still his boss. He momentarily reined in his anger, stood up straight, and nodded.

“...yes, sir.”

Richard waved a hand and Gareth knew he was being dismissed.

He left the office, anger rebubbling to the surface. Gareth was fuming, fists clenched tightly by his sides as he all but stormed down the corridor. Richard _needed_ him - without someone to deal with the nastier details of running a crime syndicate, the kingpin wasn’t going to last long. By sending Gareth to oversee the goddamn _science_ division, Richard had started a timer on how long he had left as the head of the company.

\--

When he finally made it down to the science division, after grabbing a coffee from the main cafeteria on the way, Gareth was met by Chester Wormwood himself. Wormwood was the head of all the science facilities under Dew’s control. He had at least three phDs, and there was a running joke amongst the security division that the doctor had once sold his soul to the devil in return for such intelligence.

“Finally,” Wormwood said. “I was beginning to think you’d take all day. Come on.”

Resisting the urge to roll his eyes, Gareth chucked his coffee cup in a nearby bin and followed the scientist deeper into the labyrinth of laboratories. They reached the secondary security block and Wormwood typed in a 10 digit code allowing the door slide open with a hiss.

“How much do you know about Project M.A.D.I.E?” Wormwood asked as they moved past the security and continued on into the winding corridors.

Gareth wasn’t sure how he was going to remember the way, but it would be a cold day in hell before he asked one of the goon squad for a map of their department.

“Uh, the boss just said I was being reassigned to oversee your new project. He didn’t really go into any detail.”

“Ah, good. I do love the look on people’s faces when all is revealed.” The scientist waved his hands in front of him like a magician trying to impress a crowd.

“Sure,” Gareth muttered.

Finally, they reached Wormwood’s personal lab. After a fingerprint and retina scan from the doctor, the two men entered the room, and Gareth froze.

Sat on one of the metal tables in the centre of the lab, dressed in the basic combat trousers and tshirt that all the security division usually wore, was a woman. And she was gorgeous. Pale skin, full lips, cheekbones that could surely cut glass, and long dark hair that tumbled in waves down her back. Gareth had known plenty of attractive girls in his life, but not one of them compared to whomever this woman was. Perhaps this reassignment wouldn’t be as bad as he’d first thought.

Wormwood was smirking next to him. Gareth pulled his eyes away from the woman, who thankfully hadn’t noticed his staring, to turn to the scientist.

“Wha…?”

“Mr Jones,” said Wormwood, moving towards the woman. Gareth dumbly followed. “Meet M.A.D.I.E. Or Maddie for short.”

Gareth’s blood ran cold.

“ _She’s_ the project we’re overseeing?” He choked out.

“She’s the way forward for Dew. Perfectly able to adapt to any situation, to infiltrate any location, gather any data. Multipurpose, artificial, designated, infiltration, equipment.” Wormwood beamed and the term ‘mad scientist’ instantly came to Gareth’s mind. “What do you think?”

“I think you really struggled to make a good acronym…” he deadpanned.

Wormwood stared at him for a moment before letting out a bright laugh and patting Gareth on the shoulder. Gareth grimaced.

“She’s an android. Obviously.”

“Wait, she’s a robot?!”

“It’s taken years of research and an awful lot of our funding to build her,” Wormwood continued on over Gareth’s interruption. “But it will be worth it. Come. Come. Come and say hello.”

Gareth sighed, but did as Wormwood asked and moved closer to the table. Since they’d entered the lab, the robot hadn’t moved; it was staring blankly ahead, unblinking. It made Gareth uncomfortable, especially considering how human she - _it_ \- looked. Wormwood typed a command into a nearby laptop and the robot’s entire body language changed instantly.

“Good morning, Dr Wormwood,” it said, its voice as perfect - and as human - as its face.

“Good morning, Maddie!” Wormwood smiled sincerely and gestured towards Gareth. “I’d like to introduce you to Mr Jones. He’s usually head of security, but Mr Kingsman has decided to lend him to us for the foreseeable future.”

Maddie smiled, hopping off the table and holding out a hand in front of itself. Gareth didn’t move. After a pregnant pause, the robot retracted the offered hand, eyebrow quirking and a smirk forming on its mouth.

“Friendly,” it said, and the sarcasm in its tone was obvious.

Gareth swallowed. This was too surreal; he was standing in front of an incredibly attractive microwave and it was being sarcastic. He remained silent, not even sure he could speak even if he had the words. Wormwood, obviously not caring about the awkwardness in the room, smiled brightly and launched into another scientific ramble. Gareth only half paid attention, eyesight never straying from the robot as it listened patiently to the doctor.

“So she’s still a work in progress, but she’s a fully functioning artificial intelligence, capable of learning new things without being pre-programmed with the knowledge or skill. Give her a piece of information she didn’t already know and her code will automatically update itself. She’s got social and emotional subroutines that allow her to pass as human - we’re constantly updating that code - as well as comprehensive combat and infiltration skills. Skills that can easily outmatch most humans. In fact her strength, intelligence, and speed are also superior to most humans.”

“Then, uh, what’s to stop it from just doing whatever it wants?” Gareth asked, having caught the last part of Wormwood’s little speech.

The doctor’s eyes lit up happily at Gareth words, and he moved away from his computer to stand near Maddie. He held up a finger in a ‘watch this’ motion before turning to the robot.

“This,” he said plainly. “Maddie, kill me.”

Gareth instantly went for his sidearm as the woman - _robot_ , he reminded himself - stepped forwards. It raised a hand up to Wormwood’s throat but didn’t make contact. Its face contorted, jaw clenching, and a shudder ran through its body. It looked like it was in pain. The robot gasped, staggering slightly before bending to one knee.

“Thank you, Maddie. That will be all.”

Tension relaxed from its shoulders and the robot stood back up again, seemingly completely unharmed. Though as Wormwood turned to check the readings on his computer, a flicker of what couldn’t possibly be annoyance ran over the robot’s face so quickly that it was gone before Gareth had a chance to fully register the emotion.

“What the fuck was that?” Gareth asked, directing his gaze to Wormwood instead.

“As I was _saying_ : she’s an artificial intelligence. Capable of learning information outside of her programming. _But_ , we’ve shackled her, so to speak. Hardline code deep in her programming that not even she can touch. And as part of the shackling, we’ve programmed her with Asimov’s three laws.”

Wormwood looked over his shoulder expectantly, but at Gareth’s blank look, he sighed. Rolling his eyes he turned his head back to the laptop and continued speaking.

“The first law states that no robot can harm a human. The second law states that a robot should obey all commands a human gives it, unless the command would violate law one. And the third law states that a robot should protect its own life, as long as doing so wouldn’t violate rules one and two.” Wormwood tapped the keyboard of his laptop frantically for a moment before turning back round with a smile. “Of course, we edited those laws to only account to certain high ranking members of Dew. Otherwise, she wouldn’t be much use now, would she?”

Gareth wondered if the Doctor knew he kept referring to the robot as if it was a real person.

“Unfortunately, the coding can cause a buildup of negative feedback in her system if a high ranking member tells her to hurt a high ranking member. Laws one and two get mixed up and begin a system meltdown. I’m sure the effect feels very similar to burning alive.”

He looked at Wormwood’s indifferent expression and had to force back a grimace. It might have been a robot (a very human looking, very attractive robot), but causing it to feel pain seemed a bit unnecessary - even for a morally corrupt crime syndicate.

Something from Wormwood’s computer beeped causing the scientist to jump up happily and clap his hands together. Gareth resisted rolling his eyes and sighed.

“What is it?”

“The data from this interaction is fascinating. Thank you, Mr Jones. All of this will help us to continue upgrading her social and emotional subroutines. Maddie’s never met someone quite like you before.”

“Great. I feel special.” He paused, failing to stop his gaze from flicking over to the robot. It was watching both of them with a slightly bored expression on it’s face. “What now? What am I even here for?”

“Mr Kingsman wants you, and a team of your choosing, to run security for this project. Maddie is an incredibly important piece of tech, and our rivals would love to get their hands on her.”

“But I…” Gareth began, but Wormwood cut him off and continued speaking.

“And, to begin with at least, Maddie will need a team to go with her on missions. We’re not sure how she’ll react to situations by herself just yet, so we’re not ready to send her in solo.”

That made Gareth feel slightly better about the reassignment. He wasn’t just going to be stuck in a lab all day watching a batshit crazy scientist fawn over what could easily be considered a sexbot. He looked at it, lips pursed in thought.

“I’ll have a team ready in two days,” he said, and Wormwood grinned, uttering an over the top “woop dee doo” with a clap of his hands.

The robot watched him for a moment, eyes looking him up and down, before her lips twitched into a devious smirk.

“I look forward to working with you, Mr Jones,” it said.

And something in its tone made Gareth wonder just how artificial Maddie really was.

He _really_ hated Mondays.

**Author's Note:**

> So I wanted to post this now to gain interest for it? I personally hate AU fanfiction (apart from canon divergence or soulmate AU obviously). And since the Galavant (and especially the Garalena) fandom is so small, I don't want to put effort into something no one wants.
> 
> So please, if you want to see more of this universe, let me know with a comment. Thank you.


End file.
